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The doctor will see you now

This is in an abandoned veterinarian’s office and I just realized I’m posting it specifically because I thought Uncle B would find it interesting because we pass by this building whenever we go through Hastings to get to things in the Eastern part of East Sussex.

I am using a multi-billion dollar satellite system to show a thing to my husband sitting six feet away from me on the sofa. What a time to be alive.

But perhaps you, dear reader, will also find it interesting. I notice the building every time we drive past because I thought it looked neat and a little sad, but I didn’t realize it had been abandoned for longer than we’ve lived here.

I’m amazed it hasn’t been thoroughly looted. Hastings is not the most savory of towns.

The building is a last little intact surviving bit of Ore Place, a 16th or 17th C building that was sometimes a religious building and sometimes a private home. I’m guessing this bit is from the rebuilding in 1874 for the wonderfully named Dowager Lady Elphinstone.

.

The bed was very comfortable, thank you.

Comments


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: February 9, 2022, 9:52 pm

Congrats on the Comfy Bed !!!!!
~
Hastings hasn’t been a savory town since Billy the Bastard of Normandy arrived and lured Harry the Last Saxon King into a pitched battle! A battle lost by Harry (family name of Godwinson), in decisive fashion, I must say!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson#Death


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 9, 2022, 10:51 pm

Oh, this is a hotbed of controversy, this is.

EB, current belief is that the Battle of Hastings didn’t happen in Hastings. The official story is that it happened at Battle (formerly: Senlac) where Battle Abbey is. Supposedly, the Abbey was built on the site of the battle, but not a single artefact has ever been found in the fields around the Abbey.

So the actual site of the battle is one of history’s great rasslin’ matches.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 10, 2022, 12:05 am

I’m glad your intimidating mattress didn’t cow you into an unrestful night’s sleep!

And thanks for an excuse to while away half hour or so on Google Maps bemused by interesting English place names. The most noteworthy was Hooe. How’s that pronounced, anyway?

But also of interest, to me at least, was the inconsequential fact that Brighton is in east (uncapitalized) Sussex and Westdean is in East (capitalized) Sussex.

And then there’s the Dicker trio. Starting from The (capitalized) Dicker, you head northeast to Upper Dicker and then on to Lower Dicker.

Hono(u)rable mentions: Wartling, Headcorn, Three Cups Corner, Snave, and Wrecclesham.


Comment from Mitch
Time: February 10, 2022, 1:14 am

English town names are so quaint. History is interesting but I wouldn’t want to live there. Then again, the 21st Century isn’t what I asked for either. I’m a man without a Time.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: February 10, 2022, 3:44 am

@Uncle Al—one of the family names in my genealogy is Hooe. On this side of the pond, it’s pronounced How, as in Howard. I’ll have to research the place.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 10, 2022, 2:13 pm

I have been to all of those places! Sussex was divided into separate counties, East and West, because it would otherwise be impossible for people at the ends to make it to civic functions on horseback in a timely way.

When we drive through Hooe, we make owl noises.

My favorite, though, is Pratt’s Bottom. We used to drive past it when Uncle B lived in London and we drove down to the coast, which was every time I came to London.

I always wanted to stop and have tea in Pratt’s Bottom, just to say I had.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: February 10, 2022, 2:54 pm

I guessed – that Hooe was going to be “how”, based on Sutton Hoo, discussed in previous episodes, since a “howe” is a burial chamber and then a place name.

Then again, who can tell when Dalziel is pronounced Dee-el.
Crazy English! Learn to speak your language!
English Rules! Okay!

My favorite name is Bucksnort, Caldwell County, Kentucky. Which we drove through ages ago and I have never forgotten, because it was the site of a road trip comedy routine pulled by our youngest when I tried to make him “go, because we’re here, and I’m not stopping again!”.

He didn’t much like the smell of the porta-johns, very smell oriented this one.
When I grabbed him around the waist (age 4) to carry him into the porta-potty, he lifted both feet and braced them against either side of the door preventing me from getting him in there.

Mrs D ’bout wet herself, and was no help.

Finally speaking of beds….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10473617/Social-media-users-share-beds-strange-intimidate-deepest-sleeper.html


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: February 10, 2022, 3:45 pm

Place names… USA Numbah Won!

Lizard Lick, NC…

Bumpass, VA

Add your own, I’m sure you know of one!


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 10, 2022, 4:03 pm

Ah, yes! British pronunciations…

Cholmondeley = CHUM-ly
Saint John = SN-jn (no pronounced vowels!)
Worcestershire = WOOS-tər-shər or even WOOS-tə-shə
Ralph = RAYF (as in Ralph Fiennes = Fines)
Godmanchester = GUM-ster
Magdelen (College) = MAUD-lin
Hunstanton = HUN-stun


Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 10, 2022, 4:15 pm

In seeking out the correct spelling of Punxsutawney for addition to the list of unusual place names, I stumbled across this:

The Accuracy of Punxsutawney Phil

I am shattered… is there NO ONE you can trust these days?


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 10, 2022, 4:17 pm

Of course, of all the interesting place names I’ve bumped into one way or another, my all-time favorite is a lake in Webster, Massachusetts, in the good ol’ U. S. of A.:

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

In Loup (an Algonquian tongue), it supposedly means, “the neutral fishing place where English knife-men and Nipmuck Indians meet.”

But my dad once told me it meant, “I fish on my side of the lake, you fish on your side of the lake, and nobody fishes in the middle.” While likely linguistically inaccurate, I like my dad’s version much better.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 10, 2022, 4:52 pm

I’ve been there too, Uncle Al! On the Mass/CT border. Hiked all around the lake. And I was given your dad’s definition.

I asked an old gentleman on a bench if he could pronounce the name of the lake and he said, “Sure – Lake Webster” (its other name).

You’ll find it here.


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: February 10, 2022, 4:56 pm

@Uncle Al

Please add Gloucester and Gloucestershire to your list.

GLOSS-ter and GLOSS-teh-shure


Comment from OldFert
Time: February 10, 2022, 6:29 pm

EB– Gloucester (a county in New Jersey) is also pronounced GLOSS-ter.


Comment from BJM
Time: February 10, 2022, 8:28 pm

@Durned…I has distant cousins in Bucksnort…seems my Scots (paternal) 3x great grand Pawpaw walked from Georgia to Kentucky once his indenture was fulfilled. Successive generations migrated to Misery along the Missip and ultimately Calafornie.

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